sick!

Yes, brutal scum that they're but the 3 day riots were much much more than a opportunistic time for criminal gangs, they were also an action against authority and the daily conditions that many people live under. The Tory government - and all the other parties - are using these riots as a cover - like other criminal gangs - to lay into a section of society that for decades have been excluded, impoverished and shat upon. Instead of more prisons, more police, more curfews the only people that can sort out these problems are those that work and live within these areas.

In america they "dealt" with this problem by imprisoning 2 million people, if you don't want this country to go the way of america then its time for a new thinking - we all know these incidents are sickening to watch that is not the issue here. The issue is that those who have the power, the power to maintain the wealth of a tiny elite ( UK being one of the riches countries in the world ) maintain that power by impoverishing many millions. At the end of the day its we who live in these areas that suffer, but like I said, the ruling elite have no answers, only we do.

The draconian sentences meted out recently may make the politicians and the rich feel good in the short term. But I suspect it will come back to bite them on the bum in the future - in the long run it increases the criminal class and introduce people to a life of crime.

Many activists who had previously led law-abiding existences will remember how bad experiences with the police broke the social conditioning that stops people breaking laws and leads to future lawbreaking.

And I, for one, welcome this development!

That's a very good piece of graffiti. However, I can't agree with the previous comment that creation of a criminal class is a good thing. Young people being sent to prison for very trivial offences is not a good thing. A feeling of cynicism towards the police is good (never, ever trust anything uttered by a copper), but also fosters a real sense of anger that is deep-rooted and long-lasting that has no real outlet. I can assure readers that prisons are not the holiday camps the right-wing media would have the public believe. They are stinking, dirty, boring places where humiliation and deprivation are part of the punishment.